Donate your Family History

The Ontario Genealogical Society Library holds over 3,500 donated family histories, which form a part of our catalogued book collection. Our goal is to collect a history of every family with roots in Ontario. A number of the current family histories have already been digitized and will be added to our e-Library. This will ensure that the histories are never lost and make them more accessible to researchers both locally and worldwide.

If your family history involves Ontario, and you have turned your research into a book, we would love to have a copy.

We collect family histories exhaustively and have no specific requirements in order to accept yours, but if you are looking for some guidance, here are some guidelines to consider when preparing to submit your family history to us.

Guidelines for Submission

The family history should not contain personal information of living family members (addresses, birth dates, etc.) unless permission has been acquired.

Paper copy preferred (an electronic copy may be submitted with the hard copy)

Indicate if this is a new addition history or if it is an update of a previously submitted history. If it is an update indicate original title and submission date

Indicate if copies have been submitted to other OGS Branch Libraries

Copyright Permission

Canadian copyright law permits researchers to make copies of portions of your work for research purposes and permits OGS to make one copy of this work for preservation purposes.

Permission is required to permit OGS to make appropriate copies in order to lend a paper or electronic copy of the work through the OGS e-Library.

Permission is required to permit OGS, at its discretion, to make additional paper or electronic copies to place in OGS Branch libraries for the use of local researchers.

What OGS will do

Document will be catalogued .

Document will be added to collection.

A thank you letter will be sent to you along with a permission form requesting permission to make copies of your work for researchers and to make an electronic copy to loan through our e-library.

Without your permission, only one full preservation copy, and small portions of your book may be legally copied and we cannot loan your book through the e-library.